How to Change the Page Layout in Word (Lesson 1.4)

Another topic we should look at before we start writing, is the page layout and design. We should always setup the page layout first, so our text structure isn’t changed afterwards. To setup the page layout, we need to go to the “Layout” tab and the first thing that we should choose is the page size.

Page Size

So, we click on the button called “Size” and then choose our document size. Here in Europe a standard size is “A4”, but if someone lives in the US for example, then this person might want to choose “Letter”. If we cannot find a suitable paper size, we need to click on “More Paper Sizes…” and then we can enter our custom values here.

Page Orientation 

After choosing the size, we should now set the orientation and the margins. For the orientation we can either choose portrait – which is the default one – or landscape. 

Page Margins

For the margins we choose from a set of predefined margins or we can again create our own margins by clicking on “Custom Margins…” – and then entering the value for each margin.

The last thing that we should setup in advance, is the number of columns that our document should have. For most of us, the single column design will be appropriate but if someone wants to write an article for a newspaper, then this person might want to use multi-column design.

So, these are the basic layout settings that we should configure before we start writing. Note, that these setting will affect the whole document. Later in the course you will learn how you can change the layout for only a specific set of pages inside your document